


The Mind Is It's Own Place

by SilverRose42



Category: African Diasporic Mythology, Native American/First Nations Mythology, Norse Religion & Lore, Paradise Lost - John Milton, Supernatural
Genre: Apocalypse, BAMF Women, Confused Lucifer, Disappointment, Forests, Gabriel Lives, Hurt Gabriel, Lucifer has Feelings, Quotations, Sad Gabriel, Streams, Talking, Trickster Gods
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-04
Updated: 2015-06-04
Packaged: 2018-04-02 22:09:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4075570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverRose42/pseuds/SilverRose42
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Gabriel is alive, and upset with his older brother, and Lucifer has a talk with a Goddess who might change the outcome of the whole war.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Greetings, little bird.”</p>
<p>The voice is soft, gentle, and kind, but it holds a sharp edge to it that make Lucifer freeze. He doesn't recognise the voice, nor does he recognise the presence, but he does know the tone. It's weary and wary, exhausted, as though it's owner has had a very long day. He turns to face the owner of the voice, and is startled when he sees the woman.</p>
<p>She has black hair twisted into a braid, with gleaming black feathers at the end. Her skin is dark, and she's leaning slightly on a walking stick as she eyes him. “I am no bird,” he tells her, and she laughs.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Mind Is It's Own Place

“Greetings, little bird.”

The voice is soft, gentle, and kind, but it holds a sharp edge to it that make Lucifer freeze. He doesn't recognise the voice, nor does he recognise the presence, but he does know the tone. It's weary and wary, exhausted, as though it's owner has had a very long day. He turns to face the owner of the voice, and is startled when he sees the woman.

She has black hair twisted into a braid, with gleaming black feathers at the end. Her skin is dark, and she's leaning slightly on a walking stick as she eyes him. “I am no bird,” he tells her, and she laughs. Immediately he feels rage well up in him, that this human would dare to laugh, at him.

But then she stops, and frowns. “You may not be a bird, but I am not a human either.” He blinks, the rage draining away, and he studies her. “What brings you to my forest, little bird?”

He bristles at the name again. “I am not...”

“A bird. Yes, I know. You've said it before.” She raises an eyebrow. “But what you are matters not. The question is why you are here?”

Lucifer stops. He looks out on the stream, and around at the forest, and then back to the woman. “I don't know.” She tilts her head, and he gets the feeling that he's disappointed this woman in some way. “Why are you here,” he asks, instead of focusing on the feeling.

She blinks. “I am here because this is my forest,” she replies easily.

Lucifer shakes his head. “This forest belongs to the Native People here. Not to one woman. So what are you to lay claim to this forest?”

She grins then, cheerfully delighted. “I am as old as the planet, little bird. Once, long ago, these very people claimed that I stole the sun, and populated the forests. I go by many names.” She considers him for a moment. “You may call me Raven, should you wish.”

He tilts his head. “You are a Goddess.”

Raven smiles. “In a way, I suppose. Many call me Trickster, and go on. They don't wish to acknowledge that I can be helpful, not just a hindrance.”

Lucifer eyes her for a moment, before “I know what that can be like.” His voice is soft, broken almost.

She eyes him, and she suddenly looks ancient as she mumbles “You do, don't you.”

He blinks, and then turns to her. “I have killed many of your kind,” he tells her. “And yet you stand here, not making any action against me.”

Raven shrugged delicately this time. “They got what they deserved, I suppose. Many of us tried to warn them that their council would only end in blood. Mercury I think called you there to exact their just deserts. They should have known better.” She eyes him. “Perhaps the only one who truly died without cause would be Loki.”

Lucifer blinked. “Loki?”

She frowns at him. “The one you claimed as your brother. He was going by Loki at the time.” She shook her head. “I liked him. He was a Trickster too, and good at it.”

He sighs, and looks out across the water. “Gabriel. His name, his _first_ name, was Gabriel.”

She smiles, sad but sweet, and says gently, “I know. He told me.” She sits down on the riverbed, watching the water flow. “He came here too, once. Long ago, when he first left the only home he knew. He was searching for something, I think. Coyote met him out here.”

Lucifer sits down beside her, tentative in his actions, but curiosity getting the better of him. “What happened?”

“Coyote taught him. He said that we already had a Raven, but that the Europeans had need of one. So Gabriel became Loki, and he learned from Coyote. When Coyote could teach him no more, he sent Loki to Anansi. Loki managed to trick the spider, and in doing so, became irrevocably tied to the rest of us.”

“How so?”

“Tricksters are tied together, because we are often one and the same.” Catching Lucifer's look of confusion, Raven sighed. “We are all separate beings, with separate consciouses, but we are always together. I was with Coyote when he came across your brother, as were Anansi, and Mercury. Coyote and I were with Anansi when Loki tricked him. And when you killed Gabriel, we were there.” She shrugged. “Tricksters stand together. Plain and simple.”

They sit in silence for a long moment as Lucifer considers this. Finally, he asks, “Why are you talking to me? If I'm right, you came and sought me out.”

Raven sighs. “You destroy my land, and kill my people,” she says finally. “You have killed two of my own. Normally, this would mean that I would act as judge, jury, and executioner. Tricksters play by our own rules, but we band together.” She sighs again. “Perhaps I am here to talk you out of ending the world. Perhaps I am here to elicit a promise from you that you will not touch me or mine again. But maybe I am simply here to remind you that your family, no matter how much you dislike them, is still your family. Maybe it is time you reconciled with them.”

He scowls. “That doesn't answer my question.”

She smiles, and stands. “In many ways it does. It is up to you to decide why I was here today, little bird.” She picks up her walking stick from where it has been leaning against a tree. “Take my advice, or do not. In the end, it matters very little to me.”

Her form begins to shimmer, and she begins to vanish, and Lucifer says desperately, “Were you ever really here?”

“The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven, little bird. You know that.” Her words are carried to him on the wind, and he knows better than to question it again.

He eyes where she was standing, and spots a gleaming black feather. Picking it up, he twirls it between his fingers, and murmurs “Better to reign in Hell than to serve Heaven.”

In a moment, with the sound of wings, the forest is empty and silent, save for the stream that gurgles through it.

~*~

“You've been speaking to my brother. I can feel him on you.” The tone from the man in bed is full of accusation, and Raven grins madly.

“Perhaps,” she allows. “You never know.”

Loki groans. “You have. For the love of Dad, Raven, why would you do that?”

“To dispense some wisdom, free of charge.” She carefully pushes her braid, now lacking feathers, off her shoulder. “He looked as though he needed some.”

Coyote frowns at her. “You did not kill him?”

Raven's voice is sharp as she eyes him. “You know I cannot. It would have been stupid to try.”

Anansi lets out a deep, booming laugh. “Your birdie is smarter than you give her credit,” he tells Coyote cheerfully.

Loki watches them all. “Did you tell him I was still alive?”

Raven's voice turns cold. “Never. He tried to kill you once. I won't have him succeed.” Seeing the Nordic God's downcast look, she sighs. “If it helps, he seemed very upset about it.”

“It doesn't,” Loki muttered. “But thanks anyway.”

Raven tilts her head. “Always, my dear Mockingbird. Always.”

**Author's Note:**

> So, yeah. Lucifer has a moment, like the calm before the storm. According to many Native myths, the Raven really did steal the sun, and is almost always a trickster. I'd like to consider Paradise Lost to be the sort of beginning of everything? It's supposed to be Canon here, so at the end, Raven is actually supposed to be quoting Lucifer to himself. Yeah.
> 
> I don't own Supernatural, any of the old Myths, or Paradis Lost.
> 
> Reviews make me happy, and will be cause for celebration. Flames will be placed in a jar so that I might gift them upon my worst enemy in my most desperate hour.
> 
> ~Silver Rose


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